Passports Please

I realized recently that my sister in law, Katie, is brilliant. While discussing some ideas with her about my blog and our home-based adventures she asked, “Did you make passports that you are stamping with potato stamps?”

*GASP * What? This is a fantastic idea, why had I not thought of this? I immediately bowed down to her, but she lives in a different country, so she didn’t get to bask in the glory of the bow. Really, I did the bow. Really.

After I brushed myself off from bowing down, I ran to my craft bin (ok, it's not so much a bin as it is a pile of stuff, but bin sounds better). What can I use to make passports? Should I make the covers fun and quirky using scrapbook paper? Or should I try to make them look like a real passports?

I was determined to use only what I already have, because after going to art school and being somewhat obsessed with fun craft supplies, there is absolutely no reason that I should be buying anything more from the craft store for a while (I'm sure I will soon anyway... but, shhh don't tell anyone). While I was digging, I found some old wallpaper (I'm not even sure where it came from or why I have it). The wallpaper is blue with some visual texture, then I discovered something marvelous and my search was over... the wallpaper was... wait for it... PRE... GLUED!!!!

I decided to use old popsicle boxes because Preston has a major addiction to popsicles and we could probably build a house out of all of the empty boxes. I pulled 4 of them straight out of the recycling bin (YAY for freebies). I gathered a few more supplies and got to it. 

First, I took sheets of 8.5 x 11 white paper and cut them in half. 

(She insisted on being in the picture.)

Then I folded the cut pieces in half.

After I folded the paper, I cut the boxes down to the size that I needed them to be (which was the size of my folded paper). 

With all of the paper cut and folded and all of the boxes cut to size. It was time to pullout the wallpaper. I filled a bowl with water and used a paper towel to wet the paper. Then I laid the cardboard pieces on the wet wallpaper and folded the sides around the edges (like wrapping a gift) leaving a small gap in the middle for the pages and foldability. 

After they were all glued, they were still quite wet, so I had to leave them to dry for a bit. I folded them so they would dry in the book shape that they will be and piled some books on top of them for weight. 

After the wallpaper had dried on my popsicle boxes, I glued the back pages on (for this I used craft glue and then smoothed it to a thin layer with a popsicle stick, so the paper wouldn't get ridges from the glue).

The next step was a little more fun, the personal pages. I typed up our information pages and added photos, printed them, cut them, and glued them to the inside of the cover (using the same method as I used for the back page).

While waiting for the glue to dry, I started the next step. I had decided to punch holes and use grommets to attach the pages.

After the pages were all in and the grommets were attached, I decorated the covers with a paint pen. 

There were a lot of steps, as you just read, to getting the passports made, but I am quite pleased with how they came out and it will be a lot of fun making the potato stamps for each country. 


Now I'm off to prepare a birthday party for my oldest little, my work is never done. 


Coming Soon: potato stamp adventures, spinning the globe again and moving on to another country, and who knows, maybe a trip to a craft store for more miscellaneous supplies.